Community Action Plan

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Dear Harris County,

On behalf of the Healthy Living Matters Collaborative, we are pleased to present the Healthy Living Matters Community Action Plan. We wish to express appreciation to the many individuals and organizations, both private and public, who guided the development of this plan. Commonly referred to as a national epidemic, the rates of childhood obesity have more than tripled in the last 30 years. For the first time in history, children in Harris County could face a shorter lifespan than their parents because they are overweight and obese.

Along with the adverse effects that obesity has on our children’s health, childhood obesity also imposes considerable economic costs on our local healthcare system and future workforce. In 2001, the economic cost of obesity was estimated at $10.5 billion. That figure is estimated to balloon to $39 billion by 2040. These challenges provide us the opportunity to re-examine how we are taking care of all children in Harris County.